On Sunday, children attending Sunday school picked out their roles and costumes for the annual Christmas pageant.

“Last year we did a news bulletin,” said Gwen Gray, one of four Sunday school coordinators. “The sixth, seventh and eighth grade kids acted as reporters, and they had a breaking news desk.”

Titled “Away in a Manger,” this year’s Christmas pageant will star St. Andrew’s Sunday School students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Part dialogue and part song, the pageant is split by grade level, and no auditioning is required.

“We try to incorporate as many kids as possible,” Gray said.

Gray estimated there are at least 45 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade at St. Andrew’s Sunday School, with an average of 25 students attending on any Sunday.

On Sunday, six of the second and third graders practiced songs and chose their parts for the Christmas pageant.

Sheri Freyermuth and Wendy Fischer, two guides for the second and third grade students, read through the entire program and helped the students pick their parts.

Eric Kvam and Brian Duyer excitedly volunteered for multiple parts in the students’ two dialogue sections. While the remaining students were somewhat reluctant to volunteer, everyone became excited at the mention of costumes.

“Everyone gets a costume,” Freyermuth said. “You can be an angel, a donkey. You can be a wise man, a shepherd.”

Eventually the boys opt to be a wise man and a donkey and the four girls all decide to be angels.